Recovery
by AnimeFan202
Summary: Slowly, Roxas let his eyes travel around the circle of teens who were all just as damaged as himself, wondering how they were supposed to somehow help each other heal when they were all so broken. Multiple pairings.
1. The Buildup

**A/N: I've decided I have a problem. I really need to update my other stories, but I keep starting new ones! Oh well… I had to get this one out.**

**I've placed it in the M category, but I'm probably not going to know whether that's temporary or not until the story's completed. The reason for this is that this story will deal with some adult themes, and I'm not sure yet how graphic the retellings are going to get.**

**Chapter One: The Buildup**

_The hallway goes on for as long as he can see and fades off into a blurry whiteness that his eyes can't penetrate where he cannot._

_He can feel the cold tile he's backed up against. Everything around him is so white as to be blinding, but the shadows rising up around him are of the deepest darkness imaginable. _

_He covers his head with his pale, sticklike arms as their clawed hands reach for him. Through his screams, he is able to wonder vaguely where Sora is..._

…

Roxas shot up in bed, the panic from his nightmare having carried over to hold his conscious thoughts hostage. Almost immediately a pair of strong hands were pushing him back. Reflexively, he resisted and panic accompanying a scream bubbled up inside of him, but before either could make a sound, he was stopped by a soft voice.

"Roxas, you're okay. Calm down. Breathe."

The blond boy laid back against the pillows and his father's grip on him relaxed. Cloud's voice was always quiet, but he reserved an especially gentle tone for moments like these. Roxas let his tightened muscles go slack. His breathing wasn't completely back to normal, but he was considerably calmer.

He stayed like that for a moment, letting Cloud stroke his hair back from his sweaty forehead. When he relaxed enough to notice that his shirt was also damp with perspiration, he gave the man a weakly embarrassed smile.

"Morning." He could hear the weariness in his own voice.

"Are you all right?" he got in response. Roxas resisted the urge to roll his eyes. When he was panicking, his father was always the first to assure him that he was okay, but he always asked to make sure afterwards.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He yawned and glanced at his clock. Crap! It was already six-thirty! Cloud got out of the boy's way as he jumped out of bed and began rushing around his room, setting out clothes for the day and grabbing his towel off its hook.

"Don't forget, you have your first group therapy session after school today," Cloud called after his son as he shut the bathroom door behind him a little too forcefully in his hurry.

Stepping into his icy-cold shower, Roxas groaned. Today couldn't have started out any worse, and it didn't look like it was about to get any better.

…

Despite similarities in their appearances, Cloud was actually not Roxas's biological father. He and Leon had adopted him and his twin brother Sora after 'The Incident' as Roxas had taken to calling it.

Leon and Cloud were much more lenient than most parents on a lot of subjects, but there was one topic that neither man was budging on: Whether or not the boys got counseling was not up for discussion. They'd tried many things over the years...

Family counseling had ended when it had become clear that the two would spend the allotted time fidgetting and averting their eyes, accomplishing nothing. For quite a long time they'd been counseled together, but it had been brought to their parents' attentions that Roxas was content to let Sora ramble on about nothing in particular, avoiding the subject until their time was up. Most recently, they'd tried to have them counseled separately, but that idea had dried up quickly. Sora got continually quieter as his doctor pushed him towards the more difficult conversations, and Roxas had flat-out refused to speak from the moment he had set foot in the office. Finally, Roxas's therapist had suggested group therapy for the two, and by this point Leon and Cloud were ready to try anything. If Roxas had hated Dr. Vexen before, he loathed him now.

He entered the kitchen to find his brother with his forehead resting on the polished wood of the table. His other father's childhood friend stood in the kitchen as well, attempting to have a conversation with Sora. She wasn't getting very far.

"Morning, Yuffie," he greeted.

She smiled at him. "Hey, Roxas. Jeez, have you grown _again_?" she asked cheerfully.

Roxas grinned back. Yuffie was particularly short, but it never seemed to bother her. "What's up?"

She gave a dramatic sigh that somehow didn't take away from her cheery demeanor. "I'm off to go see if I can drag your father's workaholic ass away from the firm for a while. See ya later, kid," she said, affectionately ruffling his brother's hair before nearly prancing out of the house. Sora, morning person that he was, merely grunted in response.

It was around this time that Cloud joined them. "Was that Yuffie I heard?"

"Yeah, she's going to go track down Dad at work."

Cloud sighed. "That girl wreaks destruction everywhere she goes… " But Roxas knew that his father was really quite fond of Yuffie. As Leon's best friend, she'd been their chief supporter back when they'd been in high school- a time when homosexuality had been even less accepted. "He's working on a really big case right now," he continued, mostly to himself. "I should probably go make sure she doesn't distract him too much… Do you two want a ride to school before I go?"

Leon was a fairly successful lawyer, so Cloud was able to have a more laid-back job and a much less rigorous schedule. Namely, he taught karate lessons during the day and wrote in his spare time. Cloud was an aspiring author, and though he'd gotten things published before in newspapers and magazines, he hadn't quite had the breakthrough he'd been hoping for. There was this huge project he'd been working on for as long as Roxas could remember, but he never let anyone see it except for Leon.

Roxas nodded and had to nearly shove his twin out the door and into the car.

…

It was a bright, sunny day in Hell, but it was Hell nonetheless. Roxas got out of the car, slammed the door, and scowled up at the gray brick building that was his school. High school sucked for a normal person, (or so he'd been told) but add in all his non-school-related issues and the fact that he had two gay dads and the level of suck got brought up to a royal standing. (Perhaps not the most articulate way of saying it, but that was how he'd once explained it to Pence.) Mainly because this made him the prime target of Twilight Academy's biggest bully.

In fact, no sooner had Cloud driven away than he heard Seifer's voice call out to him, "And how are the fags this morning?"

Roxas whipped around to glare at him, but Sora, now fully awake, had already placed a restraining hand on his shoulder.

"Just ignore him, Rox." This was hard to do as Seifer's shout had already attracted a lot of attention, but Roxas turned away from the other boy and headed into the school. It didn't help his case any that Seifer would be a senior soon and this was just the spring of his freshman year.

…

Considering how well they got along, there were still times that Roxas was struck by how different he and his twin were. Sora was popular almost by default. He made friends with just about everyone, and with his personality, even those friends a little higher up on the high school food chain couldn't fault him for befriending the lowly outcasts at the bottom. Namely, Roxas and his preferred group of friends.

There was Olette, the bookworm. Pence, who got picked on for being slightly overweight and a little on the slow side academically. And then there was Hayner, the self-proclaimed leader of their little group of misfits. No one disputed or challenged this position. Hayner had a strong, stand-out personality that sort of kept him from fitting in anywhere. Last but not least, there was Roxas himself. To be honest, Roxas wasn't really sure how the rest of the school viewed him. The only thing he was certain of was that he didn't really fit in anywhere but with the losers at the bottom. Which suited him just fine.

At lunch that day, Sora chose to sit with his brother instead of his other friends, no doubt remembering the tension with Seifer that morning. It was a good thing, too. About halfway through lunch, an apple fell with a thunk on Roxas's head. He turned to see Fujin- more commonly known as just Fuu- who had paused behind him. She was one of Seifer's gang, and though he rarely heard her say anything, she could be quite vicious when given the right motivation. She actually looked apologetic enough for Roxas to believe that it had been an accident, but the older girl quickly composed herself when she realized that Seifer and the rest of her group were laughing.

Nevertheless, Roxas picked up the apple from where it had rolled down his head and landed on the table. He tried to hand it to her, but she backed away with her tray, sneer in place.

"I don't want it now. I'd probably die from all the hair gel." Those two sentences were probably the most she'd said all week, and it was just loud enough for Seifer to hear. Roxas lost any and all traces of sympathy he'd felt for her immediately.

The blond boy scowled as she walked back, knowing she'd just given Seifer a new topic of interest. While Sora's hair kind of just stuck up every which way, Roxas's definitely had a more styled look to it, but it dried that way without any assisstance- not that Seifer would believe him. He longed to go over there and say something to the still-laughing group, but he didn't. And it was only about to get worse.

Had he not forgotten his science notebook in his locker, Roxas never would have ended up in Principal Xigbar's office. But he had, and his teacher had been nice enough to let him go get it. Unfortunately, at that same time, Seifer had walked out of the bathroom down the hall… and saw the perfect opportunity.

Roxas didn't notice the older boy until he'd been shoved into his locker, his forehead hitting the cold blue metal. Slowly, he took a deep breath. On top of everything else, he really didn't need this today. He whipped around and slammed his locker shut, glaring at Seifer who didn't even have the decency to stop his increasingly hyena-like laughter.

"Careful, Roxy. You wouldn't want to have to add Anger Management to your schedule."

Oh, how he _despised _that nickname. Most of all when it came out of Seifer's mouth.

"Then again," the bully continued, "it would probably fit in well with your therapy sessions." Just the way Seifer said 'therapy' made it clear he thought such things were only for the mentally unstable.

"And what would I need therapy for?" Roxas replied in a tense yet measured voice. Silently, he dared the other boy to bring up The Incident. But Seifer had other plans. A wicked grin crossed his face.

"Oh, you know. I figured even your cocksucking parents wouldn't approve of you screwing your brother."

"You motherfucker," he growled.

This time, there was no force in the world that could've stopped Roxas's fist from connecting with Seifer's face.

…

Roxas stared down at the old oak desk separating his chair from the one Principal Xigbar was sitting in. There was a long scar running down his face from when he'd been a soldier. However, Roxas had never found the man to be overly intimidating, and even now the strongest form of anger he saw on his principal's face was one of paternal disappointment.

"This isn't like you, Roxas," he said at last. "You've never been called to my office for fighting before."

No, he hadn't. He probably would've been expelled months ago if he'd let his anger take over _every_ time Seifer deserved it. Xigbar had paused long enough for him to explain, but Roxas didn't take the opportunity. Finally, the man sighed.

"How are you?" This was the question that made Roxas look up, as he had no injuries. Seifer's head had smacked the wall behind him, leaving him dazed, and the next second, a teacher had come running out of a nearby classroom. He wasn't sure if it even qualified as a real fight.

"Fine," he answered at last, clenching and unclenching his fists on his thighs.

"I've talked to your father already." Yes, he was aware of that. Roxas had spent fifteen tense, nervous minutes waiting on the hard bench outside the office. "He informed me that you and your brother are starting a new form of therapy today after school."

This bout of silence was even more uncomfortable than the last. Roxas didn't offer up any further information on this and eventually, Principal Xigbar was forced to clear his throat gruffly.

"Considering the circumstances, and as this is your first offense, it's been decided that no disciplinary action will be taken at this time. You're free to go, Mr. Strife. And please refrain from fighting on school grounds again."

"Yes, sir," the blond boy mumbled, standing up. Principal Xigbar had always had a soft spot for him, but Roxas almost wished he'd been appropriately punished. He hated the pity and special allowances and pardons he and Sora got because of The Incident. Sora had been known to boast to his friends after getting his way with something, but Roxas knew that deep down, Sora felt the same way, and he never purposely tried to push his luck.

A part of Roxas wanted to be treated equally, and another part was telling him to shut up and take the good luck where it came, because today was awful enough already.

…

Sora jumped up from where he'd been waiting for him when Roxas pushed open the door. He figured the final bell had rung five or ten minutes ago. Mentally, he groaned to himself. He recognized the look on Sora's face. He wasn't about to get out of here without handing over an explanation. After six more minutes of being pestered relentlessly, Roxas finally gave in.

"I just wanna know what he said," Sora wheedled.

"Maybe I don't want to tell you what he said," Roxas replied. His brother gave him a look, fully prepared to stare him down and Roxas released a sigh. "Fine. He was suggesting that I… loved you."

"...You _don't_ love me?"

"You know what I mean," Roxas grumbled, similarly knowing that his twin was joking.

They began walking and Sora threw an arm around his shoulders amiably. "Just try to ignore him; he's not worth the trouble. C'mon, Cloud and Leon are waiting for us."

Oh, yes… Distracted by his brother and the events of the day, Roxas had almost forgotten the _other_ horror awaiting him that afternoon.

**A/N: Review please! (I own nothing.)**

**At one time, I had all of the pairings for this figured out… then I started planning the story out further and people started fitting better with other people… So, yeah, right now the pairings are a complete mystery to me. I know I haven't introduced all the other characters yet, but feel free to send in your suggestions and input!**


	2. The Group

**A/N: Thanks to **_ScottXXC _**and **_Green Feather _**for reviewing the first chapter! The only reason this is up so soon (as I haven't gotten around to updating anything else yet) is because I'd originally planned to make this one and the first one the same chapter.**

**Chapter Two: The Group**

They were met with utter silence when they entered the car. Silence that continued as Leon drove away, hands gripping the steering wheel a little too tightly. Roxas watched the familiar scenery go by, until the car passed out of Twilight Town and into the woods beyond.

The road they were traveling along was rarely used, and after another ten minutes, an old building came into view.

"No way!" Sora sat forward in his seat. "Our therapy place is the old haunted mansion?"

Cloud turned around and gave them both a look even though Sora was the only one who had spoken. "It is not haunted." Wisely, the two stayed quiet, knowing how much their parents hated rumors.

Leon glanced at them in the mirror. "About a year ago, the old man who lived here died. In his will, he stated that he wanted the place turned into a recreational center for the town. Your group will be the first thing it's been used for."

They pulled up at the entrance where many of the columns had crumbled and were being slowly moved out of sight, but the front of the building looked as regal as ever. The boys got out and took a few hesitant steps forward, Cloud rolling down his window as they did so.

"This is scheduled to last for an hour. We'll be back at five."

"Roxas." Leon had leaned over to be closer to the window. "We'll talk about what happened at the school later, all right?"

The boy nodded grimly and the two watched the car drive out of sight. Then Roxas turned to his brother whose face had also fallen.

"Shall we get this over with, then?"

"Guess we'd better."

While the outside still looked like the home of someone old, rich, and possibly famous, the inside must have been completely remodeled and decorated. It had a decidedly community center feel to it. Still, no construction team's work could completely disguise that they had just walked into what had once been the foyer of a mansion.

Green arrows taped to the walls directed them up the impressive grand staircase. Down the hall they could see two doors- one marked as the girls' bathroom and one as the boys'. A vending machine had been installed outside the door right in front of them. Inside, they could see a table pushed up against the back wall and nine plastic chairs set up in a circle.

Sora and Roxas looked at each other and went in. The room was empty. With another few glances around and at each other, the two took seats on the left half of the circle, far enough around to see the door.

They continued their streak of silence as five other teens trickled in. It was only the last teen who interested them. Out of the corner of his eye, Roxas spotted a familiar sleeve brush by his seat. He loooked up to see an also-familiar shock of silver-blue hair. At his gasp, Fuu turned and her eyes widened around her blood-red contacts. Roxas wasn't sure which of them looked more horrified. Fuu self-consciously tugged down the sleeve of the jacket she always wore. She hurried over to the closest of the two chairs left- coincidentally, one right across from him, and the two commenced to staring at the floor. If anyone noticed something strange, they kept their thoughts to themselves.

Before he got the chance to work through the confusion, their group leader walked in. The eight of them snapped to attention almost comically.

A woman with long brown hair braided down her back walked in and took the seat with its back to the door. She looked young, but Roxas figured she had to be around Cloud and Leon's age. She smiled around at them all.

"Good, it looks like everyone's here." She was the one to break the lengthy silence, further enforcing her position. "I'm not sure how much you've all been told about this, but I'll go over the basics for you. As I'm sure you're all aware, this is an exclusively teenage group therapy. You're here because it's been decided that you'll do better in a group setting than having one-on-one sessions. It looks like we have a pretty diverse group. My name is Aerith, and I'm your group leader. There are only a few rules. No one has to talk, but you're all expected to respect anything and everything you hear in this room, and it's expected that you keep all the things you learn about each other here confidential."

Distantly, Roxas wondered how much she got paid to sit there and say cheery, bullshitty things and listen to a bunch of angsty teens whine about their childhoods. Aerith was still speaking.

"There's one last thing," she continued. "I know there are counselors and other group leaders out there who don't allow any… shall we say, harsh language. Some of you may have had people like that. I don't agree with that. As a group, you didn't get here because you've lived lives that have deluded you into thinking the world's all sunshine and butterflies. I want you all to feel free to say what you're thinking in this room. _Exactly_ what you're thinking."

This immediately raised some contradictions in Roxas's mind, but he didn't voice them. He didn't have to: Sora got there first.

"But, what if what we're thinking isn't respectful?"

He was the first of the group to speak, and it was almost like breaking a spell. They were no longer statues. The eight of them looked up and glanced around at each other, but, genuinely interested in the answer, no one said a thing, waiting.

Aerith looked contemplative, but this wasn't an issue she'd never thought up herself. "It will depend on what's been said," she decided at last. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Roxas was beginning to question the competence of their group leader, and he clearly wasn't the only one. And her next words didn't exactly restore confidence.

She actually clapped her hands together. "All right! Now that we've discussed the ground rules, why don't we go around the circle and introduce ourselves? If you're comfortable with it, feel free to also share why you're here." She looked expectantly at the boy on her right.

Roxas felt a bit of a lifting flurry and then a sinking in the pit of his stomach. It had been fine just sitting there, listening to Aerith talk, but now that it had come time for him to talk, he was beginning to remember why he'd been dreading group therapy. He could see that almost everyone else had either leaned forward or sat back in nervous anticipation. With an almost guilty relief, Roxas realized that Sora would have to speak before he did. He tried to focus his attention back on the boy in the spotlight.

Even sitting down, it was clear that this boy would be much taller than Roxas or Sora. He had long, spiked blood-red hair and tiny tattoes under his emerald-colored eyes. If he felt any pressure at all from the eight pairs of eyes positively staring at him with morbid curiosity, it didn't show. He sent an easy smile around the room, amused at how this had gone so far.

"Hello, group." His dry voice was as friendly as could be. "My name's Axel, and I'm an alcoholic." He sat back and there was a moment of silence.

Grins flickered across multiple faces, because he was blatantly mocking the system. Others, including the blond girl on Aerith's left, looked somewhat confused in a sad, almost horrified kind of way. For it was obvious why Axel was here. He was wearing a sleek, sleeveless shirt that revealed gruesome patterens trailing up and down his arms. The tip of one was also visible reaching up from under the collar of his shirt, so no doubt his chest was covered in them as well. At first, Roxas had thought they were razor marks, but upon closer inspection he could see that they had a very different quality to them. They were burns, he realized.

"Why would you do that to yourself?" The voice was practically a whisper, and it took Roxas a minute to place it. His brother's face wasn't horrified or disgusted, but terribly sad. And of all the possible reactions, it was this one that caused a small spark of anger to flash across Axel's eyes.

"Self-expression," he snapped. He looked pointedly at the girl beside him who took the hint.

Her hair was equally red, but short and straight. Her violet-blue eyes and the shine on her beaming cheeks made her look much too cheerful to belong among them. The only visible blemish on her was a long stitched-up scar running from her shoulder to her collarbone.

"Hi!" she greeted brightly. "My name's Kairi! I'll be fifteen in December, I collect seashells, I live with my grandparents in Twilight Town where my grandfather's the mayor and my grandmother does most of their banking-"

She probably would've continued to prattle on had the silver-haired boy sitting on Sora's other side not cut her off. "All right, we get it. No one asked for your life story."

Kairi didn't seem bothered in the least by his unkind words. She shrugged. "I just wanted to make sure I could remember it all. A couple weeks ago, I was in a car accident that killed my parents. The doctors were all amazed because this was the only injury I got," she continued, tracing a finger down the long scar. "Except I couldn't remember anything. Not even my name."

The breath of fresh air brought on by Kairi's ramblings was considerably dampened by this news. Not that Kairi seemed to notice or care. She turned to the girl beside her almost eagerly. Roxas felt his stomach turn over as he realized who it was. But Fuu only looked up long enough to inform them of her name.

_You shouldn't have expected to find out why she's here,_ he reminded himself. _She barely ever talks as it is, and she's definitely not going to reveal any secrets with you sitting here._ Well, whatever it was, she sure was good at hiding it. Once, near the beginning of the year, he and Hayner had tried to make peace with Seifer's gang. They'd been quickly informed that 'Seifer didn't make friends with losers and head-cases, y'know?'

Roxas's stomach flipped back over the other way as he realized how quickly they were moving around the circle. The boy sitting beside Sora with the long silver hair falling into his turquoise eyes was Riku.

"And why are you here, Riku?" This came not from Aerith, but from Kairi who seemed to have gotten the impression that their brief interaction earlier had broken down some sort of wall between them.

Riku watched her a moment to gauge whether or not she was seriously interested and, deciding she was, responded, "I was beaten and raped by my father. Repeatedly."

This was said with as little emotion as possible, and if he'd been going for a reaction, he didn't get one. Even those who felt this was upsetting managed to clear their expressions and contain their emotions, most likely remembering the exchange between Sora and Axel. But Roxas figured that many, like himself, had been expecting at least one person with this particular backstory.

"My name's Sora!" His brother's voice was cheery enough, resembling Kairi's to some extent, but he glanced over at his twin almost immediately, unsure of how much to say.

"And I'm Roxas," the blond added, but that was it for him. If Sora wanted to talk, that was just fine, but he would not.

"We're going to be fifteen in July," Sora offered up. There was a three seconds' awkward silence, disrupted by Axel's snort which drew all eyes back to the red-haired boy. He just shrugged in his defense.

"What? I just don't see the point in them not coming right out and saying it. It's not like there's anyone in this room who doesn't know about the kidnapping."

No, but Roxas suspected that perhaps Axel had been the only one to recognize them, because almost everyone else had turned to stare, trying to get a second look at them. All except for Fuu. He guessed that if she could get away with banging her head on the floor to tune them and the ever-growing humiliation out, she would. He didn't blame her; he felt the exact same way.

"Axel," Aerith berated, but the damage was done.

"That was _you_?" The outburst came from Kairi, who was watching them with wide eyes.

"Y-Yeah…" Sora mumbled, not enjoying the attention any more than Roxas was.

"Huh… I was going through some of my grandmother's old newspapers and I found the article they did on the five-year anniversary, but there weren't any recent photos…"

Roxas would have liked to point out that the five-year anniversary had been another five years ago now so the pictures wouldn't have been recent anyway, but he'd resolved to keeping his mouth shut.

"Would you like to move on?" Roxas quickly nodded, suddenly considering that perhaps their group leader wasn't so bad after all.

He turned to the girl beside him. She had short black hair and baggy black clothing. The girl hadn't looked up in recognition that it was her turn. In fact, Roxas hadn't heard a word from her this whole time.

"Xion?" Aerith prompted gently. "Is there anything you'd like to say to the group?"

She shook her head slowly, making it look like it took a tremendous amount of effort. Her eyes never left the ground.

They'd arrived at the last member of the group. The girl on Aerith's left had long blond hair and sparkling blue eyes. Her white outfit was a sharp contrast to Xion's full-black attire.

"My name is Namine," she introduced herself. "I just turned sixteen, and I was raped by my boyfriend. Once."

This was most certainly directed at Riku and almost a little defiant which was about the last thing Roxas had expected from this near-angelic-looking girl.

Now that they had come full circle, Aerith smiled around at them all again. "Now, usually, there'll be a ten-minute break halfway through for you all to stretch and converse and whatnot, but as it was our first meeting and I was running late, you can have the last ten minutes free."

It came as a bit of a surprise that it was already 4:50. In the same way that it felt like they'd been sitting there for more than just a little under an hour, Roxas also felt like it had only taken twenty minutes or so to go around the entire circle.

Aerith rose to rifle through the contents of a folder that none of them had noticed on the back table. No one said a thing. Roxas had just begun to tug on the string hanging from his pants when Axel took a lighter out of his pocket.

Namine gasped and Axel chuckled. "Relax, all my lighter fluid's been confiscated. I just like to see the sparks." He flicked it for good measure and it did produce nothing but sparks.

They sat like that for a few minutes more, accompanied by no sound other than that of Axel and the periodic click of his lighter. Slowly, Roxas let his eyes travel around the circle of teens who were all just as damaged as himself, wondering how they were supposed to help each other heal when they were all so broken.

**A/N: Review please! (I own nothing.)**

**Whew… Can you imagine if that had all been one chapter? I don't know about you guys, but I don't usually write them that long.**

**And… that is just the tip of the iceberg. (: As the story goes on, more and more will be revealed about the characters. And they'll all slowly bond, and perhaps you'll even see why I'm debating some of the pairings.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. The Aftermath

**A/N: Wow! The second chapter got a lot more reviews than I was expecting… which is awesome! Thank you,**

_**Innocent Uke Or NOT**_**: **Yes, more will be revealed about what happened to Sora and Roxas later on… I'm not sure how much later, but it probably won't be too soon. I'm a big fan of flashbacks myself, but the only way I can really think to add them in in this story is through their dreams. That's what Roxas's first nightmare was: a warped memory.

_**Green Feather **_**and **_**Hinata's Shadow1: **_I plan to stick with this story, but it will probably be pretty long. I just hope you stick with reading it!

_**Justice333:**_ Yes, introductions can get pretty boring, but they had to be done… They all should be getting closer and you all will be learning more about them pretty soon. Thanks for reviewing the first chapter as well!

_**roxas4ever14: **_I'm glad you think so. As I've mentioned, the pairings aren't 100 percent set in stone right now, so if there are any suggested pairings, I'll see if it will fit… and that goes for everyone reading this!

**Lastly, I try to always thank people for reviewing whether it's through PM or a note at the top of the next chapter. In this chapter, this really only applies to **_**Green Feather**_**, but I'm sorry if I didn't really address your comment personally… I kind of just didn't really have anything to add/answer, but I appreciate your review all the same!**

**Chapter Three: The Aftermath**

Roxas wasn't sure how long they sat there before Aerith looked up from her papers and told them they were free to go.

"And don't forget," she added. "We're meeting again on Monday."

So keen was he to be done with this meeting, Roxas had indeed forgotten that they would be meeting Monday afternoons as well. Suddenly, the weekend wasn't looking quite so bright. He was pretty sure the others felt the same, but no one reacted to her words outwardly.

Axel dropped the lighter back into his pocket as Fuu hurried out the door ahead of him. Xion shuffled past next with her head down, and Namine looked surprised but pleased when Kairi linked arms with her and started up a conversation. Beside Sora, Riku rose, headphones already in his ears. Roxas recognized the opening to _Blow _by Atreyu and smirked to himself. How very fitting.

"One down," Roxas muttered as he and his twin walked out the door, the last to leave. But he soon found that standing outside with this group, waiting for their parents to arrive, was even more awkward than sitting in a silent circle with them. Luckily, Cloud pulled up soon after a very fancy car took Axel away.

"Shotgun!" Sora called immediately. Roxas rolled his eyes and let his brother take the front passenger seat, choosing to slide into the one behind it himself.

"Where's Dad?" the blonde twin asked Cloud as casually as he could once they were moving.

Cloud glanced at him in the rearview mirror. In a measured voice, he answered, "Leon got called back to the office for something. And Roxas? Just because you won't be hearing the lecture doesn't mean what you did was okay."

"…You're not going to lecture me?" he asked a bit sheepishly.

Cloud took a deep breath. "Well, considering all that's happened lately, Leon and I figured you two would be a little on edge. So no, no lecture. Just don't expect to be going anywhere this weekend."

"I wasn't."

…

Both boys went to bed soon after dinner that night. In Roxas's mind at least, it was bad enough to have to go to forced therapy as it was, therapy among your peers was just plain cruel.

He woke up around eight but didn't move a muscle. There was something about this week that had exhausted him. He watched the clock for more than two hours, but neither of his fathers came to rouse him, and if he was still in bed it was nearly a given that Sora wasn't up yet.

His clock had just turned to 11:30, and he'd just closed his eyes, ready to doze back off… when Yuffie burst into the room. He groaned as she nearly bounced him off his own bed, suddenly feeling a lot more sympathy for his brother.

"Get up, Roxas," she prodded cheerfully. "We've got things to do, places to go!"

"I'm pretty sure _I'm_ not going anywhere," he grumbled.

"Yes, Yuffie, must you always undermine our parenting?" Cloud had come to stand in the doorway.

Roxas opened one eye to see Yuffie standing in the middle of his room with her hands on her hips. "I can't believe you actually grounded him. We've had this outing set for weeks!" She sounded deeply indignant, and Roxas suspected she was guilt-tripping him for more than just breaking a promise.

There was silence for a while until, finally, his father sighed. "Fine. Roxas, get dressed, and no more exceptions after this."

Yuffie winked at him then followed Cloud out, shutting the door behind her.

…

It was a strange day, he could see the feeling mirrored on his twin's face, but one they were both enjoying. They were all sitting on the grass outside the ice cream stand, enjoying what Yuffie declared was a much-needed break. Leon had even taken off from work.

"I don't see how you can eat that," Sora commented. "Sea-salt ice cream is disgusting."

Roxas just shrugged. "You're one to talk." He looked pointedly at the cup in which Sora was mixing Pineapple and Peppermint.

"Isn't this nice, Squall?" said Yuffie. "You should take a day off more often."

"That's Leon," he corrected, but didn't disagree.

"Yeah, sure."

Leon had been born Squall Leonhart, but he'd changed his name to Leon Strife when he married Cloud. Convinced his high school days had just been a phase, his parents weren't pleased with the marriage, and he'd wanted to leave all that behind. Yuffie was the only one who continued to call him by his birthname, and though he always corrected her, he didn't seem to mind.

"I need one lately," he muttered.

"Is that reporter still pestering you?" Cloud asked.

"What reporter?" inquired Yuffie.

Leon sighed and glanced at the boys who were, of course, listening intently. "A reporter from the _Twilight Days_ has been asking about doing a piece on the ten-year anniversary."

"A little late, don't you think?" said Sora after an awkward silence, trying to lighten the mood as this tended to be a touchy subject. "It's March, that happened in December."

"And we turned her down in December. She's been tailing me ever since."

"Speaking of," said Yuffie, "I heard you guys had your first group therapy session yesterday. How did that go?"

There was a lot of shuffling and mumbling and generally not looking her in the eye. This was another topic they didn't want to discuss. At least now they had a legitimate excuse: anything said in that room was supposed to be confidential.

But Yuffie didn't seem to mind that they were avoiding a real answer; she was probably expecting as much. "My niece Xion is in that group." Now she had everyone's attention.

"Tifa's daughter?" said Leon.

"Well, gee, don't sound so surprised," said Yuffie dryly. To the boys, she explained, "Your dad never liked my sister much."

"Unlike me, _you_ had no reason not to like her," Leon defended a little bitterly. "She wasn't crushing on _your_ boyfriend."

Just moments before, Roxas had been uncomfortable at the prospect of sitting there while the silent girl's secrets were shared with the world, but now it looked like no one wanted to be there less than Cloud.

"You never had anything to worry about," the blond man reminded his husband.

"Yeah, but _she_ didn't know that."

As their banter continued, Roxas got the feeling that his day was going to be longer than he'd expected.

…

Roxas woke up Monday morning feeling very much like he had on Saturday- with no desire to get out of bed. It seemed much too soon to have to return to the group of his fellow troubled teens. Not to mention all the things he was facing on his return to school. But the only thing that happened was one of the few he was not expecting.

Roxas didn't see Seifer once that morning, which would have been odd even without their fight, as the older boy generally went out of his way to mess with him. He did, however, see Fuu on multiple occasions. The two made eye contact just long enough to be uncomfortable.

As he had on the first day of their new counseling, Sora stuck close to his brother. Roxas wasn't sure for whose sake that was, but he didn't question it. It wasn't until lunch that the surprise came.

Olette leaned across the table and whispered to the twins, "Hey, the new girl's been trying to get your attention for a while now."

They both just stared at her, confused. "What new girl?" Roxas asked. Sora turned in his seat, and Roxas followed his gaze to see none other than Kairi walking towards them.

It didn't really sink in as she smiled at them. It didn't sink in as she set her tray down at their table and seated herself on the other side of Sora. It didn't even sink in when Hayner narrowed his eyes at her and asked, none too kindly, "Who're you?"

"Hayner!" Olette chided, but the red-haired girl wasn't fazed in the least.

"My name's Kairi," she introduced herself cheerfully. "I just started here today." It was hearing her voice that broke through his haze of confusion, that convinced him that she really was sitting there, in _his school_.

"And why are you sitting here?"

"She's our friend," Sora jumped to her defense. "Right, Roxas?"

"Yeah…" Maybe he'd been a little slow on the uptake, but Hayner was temporarily quieted.

"Where did you go to school before?" Olette asked conversationally.

"I was homeschooled," she answered matter-of-factly.

"Really?" said Pence. "What was that like?"

"I don't know." The two blinked in confusion, and Kairi launched into the tale of her car crash. At the end of which, Pence looked down awkwardly and Olette looked stricken. Though Kairi didn't seem to mind, Roxas cringed for her. There was a reason he and Sora didn't talk about their past.

"It's not so bad," Kairi insisted. Roxas stared at her, wondering if it took severe memory loss to be so happy all the time.

**Review please!**

**I don't own Kingdom Hearts! Or Final Fantasy, for that matter…**

**This chapter was a little short, but the way I've got the next one planned out, it's going to be pretty long…**


	4. The Countdown

**Hello, world! Okay, so originally, this was supposed to be a really long chapter… but as I have so little time to update nowadays, I've decided to split it into two, shorter chapters in the hope that I'll be able to get them up faster.**

**Thank you for reviewing chapter three:**

_**Hinata's Shadow1 **_**and **_**Justice333**_**: Thank you for the reviews! Yes, Kairi is most likely going to cause all sorts of mayhem. *evil laughter***

_**MayonakaGirl14: **_**I feel sort of bad shutting down so quickly the only pairing request I've gotten so far, but no. While they're very close, Sora and Roxas are brothers in this one, and I don't write incest. I'm sorry if that disappoints a lot of people, because I know that pairing has a pretty big following, even just among my readers from what I've seen, but thank you for your review, and I hope you continue reading!**

_**AusisWinds-13**_**: I know you haven't reviewed chapter 3 yet, but I just wanted to tell you how awesome you are! I loved your reviews for both 1 and 2, and I hope you have time to read the rest of the story (so far) soon!**

**Chapter Four: The Countdown**

"What are you so happy about?" Sora asked, falling into step beside his brother.

"Can't you hear it, Sora?"

"Hear what?"

"The angels singing?"

"Um… no?" he replied, laughing. "Why are the angels singing?"

"I have it on good authority that Seifer won't be back until next week."

"That's awesome. Is it enough to keep you smiling all through our therapy session?"

Roxas sighed. "Not quite."

**…**

It was strange how many of his groupmates were now also his classmates. With the exception of Sora, Roxas had originally expected therapy and school to be two completely separate things. He wasn't sure how he felt about the merging of social circles.

Amidst all the blurry details of his life, one thing had become clear: even if no one else spoke, Aerith would always be able to count on Kairi to relieve the silence. But, of course, the first thing she chose to share when their group leader asked for volunteers was that she'd started school… with Sora and Roxas. Luckily for them, she chose to add to that statement.

"I feel like I was probably a spoiled brat," she continued, laughing a little.

Aerith smiled at her positive energy- the only source of it in the room. "Why do you say that?"

"Well, my dad worked some really fancy job, and my mom stayed home all day to homeschool me. I was an only child, and one look around my old room tells me that I pretty much got whatever I wanted…" She shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe this memory loss thing was my own personal wake-up call. I get a chance to start over and be a better person."

Those in the circle who were paying attention either nodded slightly or looked somewhat impressed by her depth and level of accpetance. All except the girl to Aerith's left. Namine looked a tad bit scandalized.

"How can you say something so awful? Don't you miss your parents at all?"

"Well, you're right in _theory_," she pointed out. "I guess I miss the _idea_ of having a mom and dad, but I don't know them. It's kind of hard to miss what you don't remember."

Roxas would have liked to add that she wasn't exactly lacking for anything anyway. From what Kairi described to them, her grandparents were healthy and loving, and she was _still _spoiled… but he stuck to his resolution and kept his mouth shut.

"That is an interesting way to look at it," Aerith commented. She seemed to be giving more background noise than guidance. But, he supposed that was supposed to be one of the major points of group therapy- working it out as a group.

"No one else has anything to say?" she prompted when the circle grew quiet. "What about you, Axel? You didn't seem to mind sharing last time."

Roxas sorely hoped she wasn't about to start picking out people to share at random, and he saw others stiffen as well. Axel, however, was as undeterred as he'd been the last time she'd singled him out. The redhead didn't so much as shrug, and his eyes held a dull, bored look to them.

"I don't see what there is to say."

"Really?" she watched him carefully, sounding unconvinced. "You didn't have any reaction at all?"

"I don't see that it matters if I did," he replied, starting to sound impatient. "It's not my problem, and I'll be out of here soon anyway."

"Why's that?" asked Kairi, sounding genuinely concerned despite the lack of interest he'd shown her.

"As soon as I turn eighteen in August, I'm out of here." His near-triumph was met with silence. If there were crickets in the room, they would be chirping.

_Lucky bastard…_ Roxas thought petulantly.

"I suppose we have a lot to do before August then," Aerith responded simply. Axel frowned. He seemed clearly annoyed by her optimism.

Optimistic or not, they weren't off to a very promising start. As their group leader attempted to switch topics once more, they settled back into their dreary silence.

**…**

Roxas was finding that a lot of things were happening lately due to circumstance. For example, he would not have ended up in the principal's office last Friday had he not forgotten his book in his locker. And he would not be racing through the school right now had he remembered to do his English homework and not set himself up for a lengthy after-class lecture.

If he'd been missing something good- like math- he probably wouldn't be hurrying so much. But he had to admit, it would be a little pathetic to be late to _gym_.

The locker rooms were in the basement. His destination far down the hall, Roxas rushed down the last set of stairs… just for a door to open immediately to his right, knocking him flat on his bottom.

Slightly stunned, he looked up to see Fuu frozen in the doorway of the girls' locker room. Considering that she wasn't dressed for gym (or in his class, for that matter) she must have been leaving late from the class before. Speaking of circumstances- it was a little disconcerting how often their paths crossed lately.

"Sorry," she muttered as he picked himself up off the tiled floor.

"Yeah, it's fine," he muttered back, ready to be on his way. While he didn't hate Fuu, (she'd never been on quite the same level as Seifer) she'd never really been one of his favorite people. However, he wasn't sure what exactly he thought of her now. As much as he hated pity himself, he wasn't sure he could bring himself to truly dislike someone who had something terrible enough going on in their life to be stuck in the same therapy sessions as Sora and himself.

He was back on his feet, striding down the hallway, when he heard the older girl call haltingly behind him, "Roxas."

After briefly considering not to, the blond boy turned around. "Yeah?"

She cleared her throat. "Namine called some emergency meeting for tomorrow… Kairi said she wants everyone there."

At first, Roxas wasn't quite sure he was processing the information. "Okay," he said at last.

"Tell Sora," she replied before turning and walking away.

…

_The car hits another bump as their mother speeds down the beat-up back road. Roxas turns to see his brother's equally blue eyes, open wide in the face beside him._

_Larxene turns to look at them in the backseat, her eyes confidant and a little crazed-looking._

"_Don't worry, boys," she tries to assure them as they pass another row of dilapidated houses. "I grew up on these streets. He won't find us…"_

…

Roxas shot up in bed, trying to calm the horrible sound he made- something that was half a whimper and half a gasp- upon waking from all his nightmares. A glance at his clock told him it was only 2:03 AM.

Apart from the vibrant green numbers, there was one other source of light in his room. His cell phone was plugged into the wall beside his bed. He so rarely turned it on himself, Sora must have snuck in to charge it for him.

He picked it up and flipped it open just for something to do to try to still his shaking hands to see that he had one new message… from Kairi.

**We need 2 talk**

He resisted the urge to text back, _How did you get my number? _Instead he sent, _Fuu told me. We'll be there._

**Review please!**

**I don't own Kingdom hearts!**

**Thank you all for the reviews you've sent already! They are very appreciated!**


	5. The Breakthrough

**Like with chapter 2, the reason for the quick update on this one is because this originally was the second half of chapter 4. Thank you for reviewing chapter 4:**

_**Hinata's Shadow1**_**: Thank you for the review, and yes, Larxene does not make a great mother… but that will be gone into later when I get around to Sora and Roxas's story.**

_**Justice333:**_** ^^ I'm a flashback person, so there's likely to be more of those coming. And yes, it's a lot easier for Kairi than the others. **

_**Keyblade Master 13: **_**Ah, cliffhangers… another thing I'm quite fond of. ^^ I love new reviewers! And in regard to The Incident… Muwahahahaha! Doesn't everyone want to know?**

_**kilala2tail**_**: Another new reviewer! This day just keeps getting better! Thank you for all the compliments, and yes, the cliffhanger, plus all the awesome reviews I'm getting are encouragement to update, so thank you!**

**Chapter Five: The Breakthrough**

"And you wonder why everyone says it's haunted…" Sora muttered with a shudder as their car drew to a stop. Cloud didn't even bother to reprimand him. None of them could deny how creepy the scene was.

The grounds of the old mansion were dark, as Naminé hadn't called this meeting until 7:30. Roxas shivered as he stepped outisde and slammed his door shut, echoed by Sora's mimicry- the only two sounds on the silent property.

"Should I come back at 8:30?" Cloud asked uncertainly. Roxas nodded, though, really, no end time had been set.

The twins paused in front of the old building as their father slowly pulled away. There was one light, flickering in the window where their group met. The young blond was starting to feel more and more like this had taken a turn for the occult.

The front door creaked ominously, but it was open. The two walked up the carpeted stairs slowly, trying not to make a sound in the darkness. They reached the room and found that the flickering light came from the candles placed all over the room.

It was somewhat comforting to realize that they were the last ones there (if not surprising that everyone had shown up). Roxas let go of his brother's hand. He hadn't been aware until that moment that he'd been uneasy enough to grab it- an old habit they shared from their younger days.

All the chairs had been moved from the room, but they were all sitting in the same order. Their setting slightly changed, Roxas found himself gazing around the circle once again.

Naminé, who had beamed at them when they'd arrived, looked even more ghostly pale in the candlelight. Speaking of, Axel had never seemed more relaxed. In fact, they all looked a bit more comfortable in the dimmed lighting. (With the exception of Kairi.) Roxas noticed that this was especially so for Xion, for whom it seemed even easier to fade into the background.

"Thank you all for coming," said Naminé.

"Why are we here?" Riku asked, cutting off the blonde girl's preamble and crossing his arms. He glanced almost suspiciously at Aerith, who had yet to say a word.

Their group leader noticed both his silent accusation and Naminé's frown. Roxas was struck with another connection to school: if they were in a classroom right now, Naminé would most definitely be the teacher's pet.

"You are here because one of your groupmates has requested an extra session, which I support wholeheartedly," she made sure to add before said group member could address the silver-haired boy's rudeness. "I'm sure to most of you, Friday comes too fast after our Monday sessions. But the week can be a long time, and I encourage you all to seek someone out if it all just becomes too much." Aerith let her gaze linger on each of them in turn.

Naminé cleared her throat, ready to be the center of attention again. "Anyway, I've called you all here for something very important…" she trailed off and fidgeted in a way that Roxas couldn't tell if she was nervous or excited. She seemed almost unsure of how she wanted to approach this moment now that it had come. She finally seemed to settle on indignance.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I show up every session because I want to get better." There was a touch of real anger in her voice. "That's never going to happen- for any of us- if we spend each afternoon just sitting around refusing to talk."

The blonde girl didn't call anyone out by name, but several pairs of eyes darkened. It was a lot to ask of them, especially so considering the majority of the circle wasn't there by choice. Well, with the exception of tonight, of course.

_Very sneaky… _Roxas thought.

Naminé took a deep breath. "So I'm taking the first step." Her tone was hard to describe. It wasn't grim, exactly… but she wasn't jumping for joy either.

"When I started high school," she began, "I was a lot of things. I was shallow, pretty self-centered, I guess. I had a lot of friends, but I wasn't particularly close with any of them. I was the blonde cheerleader," she said with a light, almost sarcastic flip of her hair.

She took another deep breath, steadying herself for the harder part of this story.

"There was this boy who went to my school named Marluxia. I didn't really know him all that well, but he got picked on a lot. His hair was naturally the lightest shade of pink you've ever seen, and he always smelled like roses. It was just him and his mom, and she worked all the time. That was just the kind of shampoo she bought, and they usually didn't have the spare time or money to get him haircuts, so he kept it long. It wasn't his fault, that's just the way it was. But kids are cruel.

"Anyway, I guess it got to the point where he felt he had to prove something to the other boys… I didn't really know him, but when he asked me out, I said yes. He was a junior and I was a freshman, and I was the only girl on my squad who didn't have a date to homecoming… so I said yes."

Roxas could picture this Naminé of a year ago, though it was hard to line up that girl with the one sitting before him now.

"In the beginning, it was actually really nice. High school was going better than I'd ever imagined it would. None of my problems went beyond regular school problems, like forgetting to do my homework, or getting into little spats with my friends. And Marluxia was really sweet. To be honest, most of the time, it didn't feel like we were dating. We'd only kissed once- at the dance. I mean, we held hands in the hallway and everything, but for the most part, he could have been my best friend."

Naminé was silent for a moment, seeming to dwell internally on something, and Roxas could tell that this was the part where the story got darker.

"But the bullying didn't stop, and I could see that it was really getting to him. I tried to tell him to just ignore it, but what _I_ said never seemed to make a difference when compared to what everyone _else_ was saying.

"He started wanting to spend more and more time together outside of school. Which would have been fine, except we weren't hanging out anymore. He'd have me over when his mother wasn't home- which was ever- and he'd put on some dumb movie and try to feel me up."

The entire room was dead silent, but it was a different kind of silence than they were used to. It was more respectful, in a way. They all knew where this was going.

"It got worse and worse, and one day he just, I don't know… snapped. He started screaming back at the other boys, and then he just stormed off… But we'd already had plans that night, and I couldn't just not show up…

"When I got there, he'd decorated his house in the creepiest way… It was so dark, and he'd set out all these candles… The entire place smelled overpoweringly of roses."

The smell seemed to have permeated the air of the very room they were sitting in, and with a shiver, Roxas realized it was coming from the candles. Naminé had deliberately done up the room a certain way. Sora must have noticed his brother's reaction, because he took Roxas's hand again, who made no move to pull away.

"I didn't even see him before he grabbed me… He didn't look nearly as strong as he actually was. He shoved me down on his couch- the same one we always sat on- and held me down while he tore off my skirt… And then he was _inside_ me…" Her voice choked off.

"Why didn't you scream?" asked Kairi, her voice deathly quiet, tears dripping from her eyes to match the ones trailing down the blonde girl's cheeks.

"At first, I begged him over and over again to stop… then I just couldn't talk at all… He was making the most _awful_ sounds." Naminé hugged herself a little tighter. "He was actually _enjoying_ it," she said bitterly.

The entire circle seemed to have frozen in her pause. Those whose faces he could see were as pale as Kairi's, and Riku's hands were clenched into fists.

"When it was over," she began again, "he just stood there and looked down at me like I was some sort of stranger. I grabbed my stuff and ran… I wouldn't let myself go back over what had happened in my mind. I wouldn't let myself think at all. It didn't even register that I was sore until the next morning.

"My mom let me stay home the next day- I told her I was sick. The day after that, I quit cheerleading, and I went out of my way to make sure I never passed anywhere he might be. I didn't care if I was late to every class, but I couldn't stand the way it felt like everyone was watching me. I stopped talking to my mom. I felt like I should've been showering five or six times a day, but I couldn't bear to look at myself in the mirror anymore.

"About a week later, I was still feeling sick every day, and I started to panic. I mean, what if he'd given me an STD or something? I let my mom take me to our doctor, and I insisted they test my blood. When the doctor came back, she told me I was pregnant."

Roxas closed his eyes and squeezed Sora's hand, wondering if this story could get any worse. It could.

"As soon as we found out, my mom started screaming, and I was crying and screaming right back, and the story sort of just… came out.

"My parents hired some really expensive lawyer, but I refused to talk to him. I didn't care what happened to Marluxia as long as I never had to see him again. I was sick all the time… I hated myself, I hated that _thing_ that he'd put inside of me…"

She took a deep breath, her hands trembling. "One day, my mom started decorating the room next to mine… I'd told her a _million_ times I didn't want to- I couldn't- keep it, but she was making a nursery. I stormed in there and started yelling, but then I stopped. I'd felt this little twitch inside of me."

Naminé placed a hand over her lower abdomen with the smallest hint of a smile on her tearstained face, reliving the moment. "It was the tiniest thing , really, but it was the first time I'd felt anything…

"It took a little while to sink in, but I started to get excited too. For the first time, it sort of felt like this whole thing didn't have to be all bad. Don't get me wrong, I was terrified of giving birth and being a mother and all that, but there was never any doubt that my parents would help out. I knew I'd have it a lot easier than a lot of teen mothers.

"I started talking to my lawyer, and we filed the rape report. Marluxia was expelled from school, and we starting talking about the trial…

"A couple days later, I started to get really bad cramping… My mother said it happened sometimes, and she sent me to bed early. When I woke up… my bed looked like a murder scene. Everything was soaked with blood, and I started screaming."

Naminé took a moment to futilely attempt to brush away her tears, and this time it was Sora squeezing Roxas's hand for comfort.

"When I woke up, the doctors said I was lucky. I'd passed out from the sight, not the blood loss… But I'd lost my baby. They said it happened sometimes early on… and I hadn't been taking the best care of myself…"

There was a muffled sob, and all eyes turned to look at Kairi. "I'm sorry," the red-haired girl said to the group. "It's just so sad." She got up and walked over to sit beside the storyteller, putting her arm around the other girl.

"I didn't think it was possible to feel so heartbroken about something I'd only just gotten attached to," Naminé choked out. "I felt so guilty… I'd spent so much time trying to ignore its existence, and now it was gone… just like that. But I couldn't ignore it this time. I continued bleeding for days, and I couldn't afford to fall apart again."

Naminé seemed to be steeling herself for the final mile. "We had a ceremonial burning of all the furniture we'd bought for the nursery, and I personally tore down all the wallpaper. Then, a couple of weeks ago, Marluxia was found guilty at trial. Everything was ending, and I decided right then to do everything I could to get better."

There was another moment of silence after she'd finished her tale. Aerith began to praise Naminé for her courage, but Roxas barely heard it.

_I'm glad you were able to open up your mind to the group,_ he thought silently to her, _but I can't return the favor…_

**Review please!**

**Success! I've finally figured out how to get the accent over Naminé's E!**

**So, we've finally hit one of the heavier chapters, and I'd like to apologize right now for anything that gets mistaken. A lot of Sora and Roxas's flashbacks are taken straight from memory, but for certain things, such as Naminé's rape/miscarriage, are things I've never experienced. (Insert relieved catchphrase here)**

**I don't own Kingdom Hearts!**


	6. The Way Silence Shatters

**I JUST BEAT 358/2 DAYS! YES! **

**Ahem…. Now onto a relevant topic… For reviewing chapter five, thank you, **

_**AusisWinds-13**_**: Thank you for reviewing chapters 3 and 4 as well. Your long reviews always make me smile. ^^ I'm a fan of Glee as well. On that topic, let's just say that after watching the most recent episode, the next one better be called 'The Get Back Together'. **

_**xXkairiheartsXx: **_**Oh, the awful puns… ^^ The way I've got it planned out, certain characters will be gone into sooner than others… Unfortunately, Xion will have to wait for a little while. **

_**Green Feather: **_**As sorry as I am that I made you cry, I'm actually really flattered that my writing could have that effect. (; Don't put your tissues away yet. Some of the more emotional scenes (in my mind anyway) haven't happened yet.**

_**Hinata's Shadow 1 **_**and **_**Keyblade Master 13**_**: Thank you both for reviewing. I guess it didn't really work, but I was trying to get across that Naminé really isn't all that shallow anymore… Well, that should become more apparent later on when she gets more… I don't think screen time is the right word…**

_**BuffyPet**_**: I'm glad you liked it, but no… I'm sure you won't be the only one I'm disappointing here, but I don't write SoraxRoxas.**

_**Justice333: **_**Yes, a main point of chapter five, besides getting Naminé's story out there, was to get the ball rolling. (: This chapter's a little slow (and intense at the same time…) but more should be happening soon.**

**Last of all, I'd like to thank everyone who said something positive about the way chapter five was written. There were some parts where I really wasn't sure if I was satisfied with it, but in the end I think it turned out okay. (:**

**Chapter Six: The Way Silence Shatters**

His white ceiling seemed to pop and crackle in the darkness even though the entire house was silent. Roxas had been lying awake since he'd gotten home. The meeting had run past 8:30, but Cloud hadn't seemed to mind.

Naminé's story had been powerful. She'd even managed to convince him (for the most part) that she was okay, or would be okay. But she hadn't answered the most important question, the one that held any amount of relevance with him: How does one recover from anything so dramatically life-changing?

The blond boy turned to stare out his dark window. Twilight Town wasn't exactly a big city, but tonight not even the crickets were chirping. Roxas wrestled with his sleepless mind for ten minutes more before taking his cell phone from his bedside table for the second time that week.

He found Kairi's old message in his phone and replied, _What's Naminé's number?_

He must not have been the only one lying awake that night, because he got an answer not five minutes later.

So there he sat, with all the means to contact Naminé, and no idea what to say to her. At last, he settled on, _I want to talk to you._

Just ten minutes later she responded, **Okay. I'll call u 2morrow.**

…

"Roxas, get up!" Not being much of a morning person himself, Sora had only been able to take so much of the unresponsiveness before he resorted to shouting. And when he wanted to, the the brunet twin could be _loud_.

His blond counterpart startled awake, shooting up so that their foreheads collided with a sickening smack.

"Ow…" Sora grumbled, clutching at his head. "What did you do that for?" he snapped, glared.

"It wasn't on purpose," his brother replied, glaring right back. "And maybe you shouldn't have been _screaming _in my ear!" Roxas ground out between his teeth.

Glaring at each other in identical positions from where they each sat, neither twin moved for a good five minutes. And this was how Cloud found them when he walked up the stairs.

"Roxas, why are you still in bed? And Sora, get up off the floor; you're both going to be late." Evidentally, it was a bad morning all around.

The two just barely made the bus in time, and they retained their crabby attitudes until the bus turned the corner and they caught sight of the school.

Sora, now fully awake, turned from the aisle and nudged his brother. "Hey, Roxas."

"Nnn?" Roxas had his head resting against the seat in front of them, eyes closed.

"Have you ever had this sudden urge to be somebody's friend?"

"No."

"Oh… Okay." There was silence.

Finally, Roxas heaved a dramatic sigh and asked, "Why?" His brother's beam was so bright Roxas could practically see it through his eyelids.

"I decided last night that I want to be friends with Riku."

At last, Roxas picked up his head and opened his eyes to stare at his brother. Had their collision that morning been harder than he'd thought?

"Why?" he asked again, utterly bewildered.

"I just feel like he's the kind of person I want to get to know. Why don't you like him?"

"What's to like?" the blond twin answered cynically. "After Axel, he's my least favorite person there."

"You don't like Axel?" Sora seemed genuinely surprised.

"Are you kidding?" Roxas responded darkly. "Riku may just be pissed at the world, but Axel's secretly mocking every one of us there." He didn't really feel like explaining how he knew this. Every time he looked at the older boy, he saw a not-very-well-contained fire burning in those emerald eyes that conveyed exactly what he thought of them all. Luckily, Sora didn't ask.

"That's funny," he said instead lighthearted as ever. "I bet you and Axel could be really close someday."

"I don't suggest ever taking up gambling," Roxas muttered as the bus doors flew open and students began to flood into the building.

…

All throughout the school day Roxas's thoughts were buzzing around his head, but they were such a jumbled mess that he wasn't sure they successfully formed a coherent sentence even once. He got yelled at for not paying attention in almost every class. He nearly forgot to eat his lunch that day as he was sitting in the cafeteria and couldn't comprehend a word any of his friends said to him. By the end of the day, Hayner was annoyed, Olette was worried, and Pence looked terribly confused, but Roxas didn't have enough space in his thoughts to try and fix any of these problems.

Every once in a while, Roxas would just… turn off. It was something that his brother had learned to deal with and his parents were still troubled about, but in Roxas's opinion, there were worse things to live with. It didn't make him suicidal or lash out at others; he just wasn't mentally there. And these spells always passed.

So out of it was he, Roxas had forgotten all about the conversation he and Naminé were supposed to have until she texted him not five minutes after the final bell rang. In a bit of a daze, he read:

**Roxas, **

**Sumthing came up. We'll have to talk 2morrow group.**

Vaguely, it registered in the back of his mind that this was probably for the best- he was in no condition to have that conversation right now. It did not occur to him to text her back.

…

The house was quiet. Cloud and Leon were both at work, and Roxas had been sitting on his bed, staring out the window, ever since he got home.

There came a tentative knock on his bedroom door. "Roxas?" It was fitting that his brother be the one to break the silence.

Roxas directed his blank gaze at his brother but didn't say a word. Sora hesitated before striding into the room and sitting down beside his twin on the bed. "Are you okay?" Rarely did Sora's voice sound so timid.

"Fine," he mumbled in response.

Slowly, Sora reached a hand out to his brother's shoulder. Roxas didn't have the energy to brush him off.

"You're not fine," the brunet nearly whispered, uncharacteristically solemn. "Don't you think it would help to actually talk to someone?"

Why did his brother have to bring this up _now_? Couldn't he see that Roxas didn't have the emotional capacity to deal with such a loaded question right now?

"You're one to talk," he murmured distantly. It felt like he had to fight through sludge just to get the words out.

"I don't do _this_," Sora whispered, and Roxas was certain he wasn't supposed to hear. But he did, and for the first time that day, a small thorn of annoyance started to prick through his haze.

And when Roxas did speak, it seemed like the only emotion he could convey was anger.

"Well, I'm glad _you_ live in a world where life can be perfect if everyone just shares their feelings all the time, but I don't."

"Not that you would know, because you've never tried!" Roxas couldn't bear to look at Sora- his voice was already choked up.

"I don't need to," Roxas snapped, directing his words at the floor. "I've been watching you long enough to see that it doesn't work!"

"Stop it!" Sora exploded at last, jumping to his feet. "I don't care if you want to send the rest of the world to Hell, but stop shutting _me_ out!"

"Why not?!" Roxas shouted back, his anger rising. "You seem to understand about as well as the rest of the world!"

"How can you act like no one else will ever understand you? I was there too, you know! I have to live with it too! And you know what else!?" Sora yelled in the finale of his rage. "It wouldn't kill you to show some emotion once in a while!" Rant over, Sora stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him so hard the whole doorframe rattled. A moment later, another door could be heard slamming a little further on down the hall.

"And when would I have time to do _that_?!" Roxas screamed back, regardless. "I'm too busy taking care of _you_!"

But his screams fell upon an empty room. Breathing heavily, Roxas backed up shakily until his hit his bedroom wall. He slid down until he met the floor and slowly brought his hands up to cover his eyes.

**Review please!**

**I feel like this was a little shorter than usual… Oh well. In the next chapter, I start setting things up for some conflicts a little further on in the story. (:**

**I don't own Kingdom Hearts!**


	7. The Lie

**Well, first, I'd just like to say that it seemed like all of the reviews for the last chapter were so long, which is awesome! Thank you for reviewing chapter six:**

_**Guest: **_**At one point in time, I knew exactly where Riku's storyline was going to come in… Now I'm not so sure, but I can say that the scene in this chapter with Riku and the one with Axel are two that I've had planned out from the very beginning. I just have to wait to see where everything else falls into place,**

_**Justice333: **_**Thank you. ^^' Is it bad to say that I actually had a lot of fun writing the scene at the end where they fought? And yes, the chasm… (what a fun word) The two do start to grow apart a little as they befriend the others.**

_**AusisWinds-13:**_** The ending was very sad (of Days) but I actually didn't have to attempt it too many times to beat Xion, and the fight with Riku at the end was a joke… But, on a relevant note, I'm glad you can see both sides of their argument; I was trying to show that there were two sides, even if Roxas is essentially telling the story.**

_**Hinata's Shadow1 **_**and **_**mudkipluvr4ever: **_**Thank you so much for the reviews! ^^ Off topic once again, I love mudkips! The first Pokemon game I ever beat all by myself, I chose a mudkip. (:**

_**Optomistic Emo Kleptomaniac: **_**Well, first I'd just like to say that I really like your pen name, and I love new reviewers! ^^ And it's funny that you should mention the POV change, because originally where it goes to Sora in this chapter, was going to happen in the last chapter, except I decided last minute to make chapter six more focused on the twins.**

**Chapter Seven: The Lie**

Friday morning dawned bright and early, and for a few minutes, Roxas just lay in bed, watching the sun stream through his window. His mind was considerably clearer, though his memory of yesterday was somewhat hazy.

He and Sora walked out of their bedrooms at the same time, trudging down the hallway side by side. They didn't say a word to each other, but in that silence, all was forgiven. That was just how the two worked. However, neither missed the watchful eyes of Cloud and Leon. Or the odd fact that Leon was home at all.

On the bus, Sora rested his head on Roxas's shoulder, and the blonde brother let him, deep in thought. But he shot up not five minutes later.

"Oh yeah!"

"Huh?" Sora asked sleepily, jolted out of dozing off again.

"I was supposed to talk to Naminé today."

"Oh, great…" Sora mumbled thickly, settling back down and closing his eyes again. Roxas didn't mention that this also meant they'd be going back to group today, but he realized that, perhaps for the first time, he didn't really mind.

…

Roxas wondered just how far you could trick your brain in regards to time. He was actually looking forward to group, but he was so used to dreading it that the day seemed to speed by. Lunch seemed to arrive earlier than usual, and before he knew it, Cloud was pulling away from the old mansion.

He and Sora didn't bother to creep through the place anymore. Their tracks were on their way to becoming well-worn. Roxas thought he saw a flash of silver go by right before they reached the second-floor landing, but he wasn't really paying attention.

"We're early," Sora commented, distracted by something down the hall.

"Yeah," Roxas murmured, just as distracted though not for the same reason. He sat down on the hard, bright green bench outside the door (it had been donated recently after their first session) and rested his head against the equally hard wall, hands tucked into the pockets of his jeans.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom before it starts," said Sora, turning slowly and watching his brother. He needn't have worried; the blonde twin was barely listening.

"'Kay," he replied absentmindedly, his thoughts drifting off as his brother did.

…

Sora eased the door to the men's room open as quietly as possible. He'd never actually been inside before, but it was obvious upon first glance that it had not always been a bathroom. No one had bothered to remove the carpet and fancy wallpaper from the floor and walls, which was a bad idea for reasons he didn't even want to think about.

But he wasn't in there to actually use the bathroom anyway. He too had seen the flash of silver go by, but Sora had been paying more attention than his brother. Riku was standing in front of the sinks, looking at himself in the tall mirror.

Sora gasped and then immediately snapped his mouth shut, freezing where he stood. The silver-headed boy, however, didn't appear to have heard him. His jacket was unzipped and he wasn't wearing a shirt underneath.

Patches of his chest were the odd, yellowish color of a nearly-healed bruise. But it was his stomach that attracted Sora's attention. The older boy's abdomen was a hideous shade of purple. Riku gingerly skimmed the fingertips of his left hand across the tender surface.

Sora squeezed his eyes shut, reopened them, and then pushed the door open completely. Riku whirled around, pulling one half of his jacket across his body, but the damage was already done.

"What do you want?" Riku demanded, snarl in place.

"How'd that happen?" Sora breathed, not sure he was able to keep the horrified expression from his face. His words only intensified the other boy's scowl.

"Got into a fight with some little shit at school," he ground out. "Not that it's any of _your _business," he spat pointedly before brushing past him out the door.

…

Roxas's silence was interrupted nearly the second his brother left. A glance to his right revealed that the door was not closed, as he'd originally thought, but slightly ajar. And the voices coming from inside, one calming and one angry, were two that were definitely familiar; he didn't have to wait long to confirm who they were.

"Axel," Aerith said, already sounding as if she were trying to cool his temper.

"Just shut up!" he snapped. "I'm so sick- I'm so _fucking sick _of hearing this!"

"Axel," their group leader said again. "I'm sure you have heard this multiple times… from your friends… your parents." She was playing a safe game- one Roxas recognized. Aerith was waiting for the redhead to jump in.

Roxas tilted his head a little closer to the door, eavesdropping shamelessly.

Axel snorted. "Hardly. What friends? And my parents? Ha! You've got to be kidding." His voice was bitter. "Do you think my parents give a damn what goes on here? Do you think they've ever seen the place?" he ranted.

Aerith's voice again, reasonable as ever. "I'm not saying-"

"I don't care what you're saying!" he exploded. "The point is, I wouldn't be here if my parents didn't think dropping me here twice a week would fix everything!" He was clearly seething, and he'd nearly spat the word 'parents'.

"Axel," Aerith said one last time, even more softly than before. "I'm not trying to assume anything about your family. You are by no means the first person in the history of the planet to have a problem with them. But we're here to help you, and I truly think it would benefit you to participate in group discussions."

"Yeah, whatever," Axel muttered, sweeping past Roxas as he strode out the door and down the stairs. Naminé and Kairi were just making their way up, Xion and Fuu trailing behind.

Riku, followed by an uncharacteristically timid Sora, was also heading his way down the hall until the seven of them were waiting somewhat awkwardly outside the door. Aerith opened it a second later with a sigh and a tired smile. "Come on in."

"Hi, Roxas," Naminé greeted when he stood. The blond boy nodded to her, but his mind was elsewhere. If _Axel_ was getting the participation lecture, he wasn't sure he wanted to spend any amount of time alone with Aerith.

No one said a word about Axel's empty chair when they sat down, though Roxas was the only one who knew the reason behind his absence. Instead, their group leader simply closed the door behind them and took her place in the circle.

"Roxas," Naminé said again before Aerith felt the need to break the silence. "Wasn't there something you wanted to ask me?"

His face flushed as every pair of eyes in room moved to find him. "Oh, right. Um… I was wondering about the end… To your story, I mean." She just blinked at him.

"It sounded a little too easy," Sora added in an attempt to aid his twin, who flashed him a grateful smile.

"Oh." She smiled a slightly rueful smile. "I guess I did do a bit of editing. It really wasn't that simple.

"When I returned to school, everyone would either stare or refuse to look at me. Marluxia didn't have many friends, but a lot of people didn't believe he was capable of rape. They thought I was lying to get attention. And I'd lost just about everyone I'd considered to be a friend when I quit cheerleading."

Kairi sighed, eyes downcast. "I wish that didn't happen… The power struggle, I mean."

"Yeah, but that's how it is." Everyone turned to Fuu, who generally spoke up as much as Roxas and was pulling at the end of one of her sleeves, her gaze never rising from the floor. "Men need to be in control or else they risk looking weak, and women need to play the sympathy card or risk looking petty or shallow when something goes wrong."

All was quiet for a while as they let this sink in until Naminé spoke again.

"I was miserable there. In the end, I begged my parents to let me transfer to the local private school where no one knew me."

"Oblivion Heights," came a quiet voice from the doorway. Roxas turned to see Axel walking back into the room. He sat down in the empty chair, and Naminé smiled at him.

"Yes. I thought I saw you there once or twice, but you're a senior and I'm a sophomore, so we don't cross paths much."

"Naminé Grace," he said slowly. "I heard about you. Your mom's a model, and your dad's a professional football player, right?"

"Yes. I guess it's impossible to remain completely anonymous."

"Not that it really matters," Riku spoke up. He didn't sound terribly interested. "I doubt your 'friends' really know you anyway."

"No, I guess not," she replied a little sadly.

"It's hard to tell someone you care about when something is wrong." Ironically, it was Kairi who'd spoken. "I'm not saying they don't _care_, but-"

"They don't understand," Fuu cut in. "No one wants to hear that it doesn't get better after you tell someone. That you're not cured as soon as you decide to go for help."

It was the longest speech Roxas had ever heard her make, and he found himself thinking of his own friends. How Hayner seemed to ignore every serious problem that came his way. Of the horrified looks Pence and Olette had given Kairi after she'd shared her tale. No, his friends didn't really know him, but he wasn't sure he'd still have friends if they did.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Xion with her face tilted to the floor, tears dripping silently down her cheeks.

**Review please!**

**XD Ha ha, I didn't realize how creepy it was for Sora to follow Riku into the bathroom, until after I had a friend read it and she pointed it out. I don't own Kingdom Hearts.**

**On Thursday, I'm leaving for DC until Sunday, so if I don't get chapter 8 up before then (which I'm working on now, and is probably going to be pretty short) you'll have to wait until the next week.**


	8. The Hidden Pain

**To all that it may concern: THIS IS NOT CHAPTER SEVEN! This is indeed chapter eight, and I've replaced the author note with the actual chapter seven as promised. However, it didn't show up as an update so you were most likely not alerted to it. For anyone that missed chapter seven, please go back and read it. Thank you. (:**

**(And thank you, **_Hinata's Shadow1 _**for reviewing.)**

**Chapter Eight: The Hidden Pain**

Seifer returned to school on Monday. Any bruising had disappeared, and for the first day, he wouldn't even look at Roxas. On the second day, Seifer would send a murderous look his way whenever they happened to pass each other in the hallway. And by the third day, Roxas was wishing he could return to the dread and anticipation of the first.

"Goddamnit!" he cried, jumping back on reflex as he viewed the contents of his locker. It was Friday afternoon, and everything in his faulty metal safe now lay coated in red paint. Sora, standing off to the side, leaned closer to get a better look and his mouth popped open.

"Did Seifer do that?" he asked.

"Who else would it have been?" Roxas replied darkly, leaning down and running a hand over one of his textbooks. The paint was dry.

"You should bring all that stuff to Xigbar. I mean, even if he's mad, I'm sure he'd believe you. Maybe he could get you a new copy or something…" His brother kneeled down beside him to try and help sort through the mess.

Roxas sighed. "I think I already used up my favor when he didn't suspend me," he sighed. "Besides, he stopped me in the hallway yesterday, and I could tell he wanted the whole Seifer thing to be over and done with."

_Not nearly as much as I do, though, _he thought grimly. Most of his textbooks looked as if they'd survived the worst of it, but his homework folder was completely trashed. He could see a long night ahead of him… But for now, he heaved everything back inside and slammed the door shut. From the outside, it all looked perfectly normal…

"So how do you think Seifer got into your locker?" Sora asked, breaking into his thoughts as they began to walk down the hall, hands behind his head.

"No idea," Roxas mumbled cynically, though really, he had a pretty good guess.

…

When Roxas strode ahead as they entered the mansion, Sora gave his brother a questioning look but didn't actually say anything, which the blond twin appreciated. Today they weren't early, and Fuu was climbing the stairs when he spotted her.

"Hey!" he called out. She turned at his angry tone. Excluding that incident with Seifer that had begun this whole mess, Roxas rarely lost his temper, and never at school. She watched him almost blankly as he stormed up to her.

"You gave Seifer my locker combination," he accused, fuming. He had spotted the older girl lurking aound by the freshman lockers whenever he'd been there, but he hadn't been able to figure out why. He'd briefly entertained the idea that she might be working up the courage to say something to him, but now he knew better. She'd been spying.

Of course, it didn't help that his locker rarely worked to begin with. It often stuck, and when it wasn't getting jammed, it tended to open without the exact combination; if you were close, you were good. Which had never been such a hindrance before now.

For the longest time, Fuu said nothing, her expression cool. At last, just as his breathing was beginning to slow down, she replied, "Get out of my face," and turned and walked away.

Roxas was left to stare after her, barely registering that Sora had come to stand behind him. He'd been stupid to assume that going to group together had changed anything between him and Fuu. They certainly weren't friends.

"Come on," Sora said at last, placing a hand on his twin's shoulder. "We'll be late."

The two finished what had become an increasingly long journey together, though Roxas shrugged away from the other boy, and took their seats in the circle. Naminé glanced at the blond boy worriedly, but he was too busy ignoring Fuu to notice.

Whenever the teens of the group started to fall into their pattern of silence, Aerith would attempt to get someone to start talking. Fresh off of another private meeting, today she turned to Axel. But it was to the surprise of both of them that Kairi initiated the conversation before Aerith could.

"So, Axel," she said, "Why did you decide on fire?"

He just stared at her for a moment before glancing suspiciously at Aerith and replying, "What?"

"The burns," Kairi specified lightly, gesturing to the older boy's arms as if this were something they discussed on an everyday basis. "Why not just use a knife or something? Why fire?"

As this particular line of questioning continued, Fuu paled. And when she spoke, her voice was quiet and unsteady; it showed none of the detached coldness she'd exhibited earlier. "Don't you think that's a little personal?"

But Axel had composed himself. "If you're so eager to talk, why don't you share your own secrets?"

"I would, if I knew any of them," Kairi replied, uncharacteristically combative.

"I think that's a valid question," Aerith cut in before an argument could start up. Everyone in the room knew that Aerith couldn't _force_ Axel to talk. Which is why it came as such a surprise when he did.

"It's a statement," he said in a calm, steady voice, but Roxas could see that his hands were clenched into fists on his thighs.

"A statement regarding what?" Sora's eyes were wide, and the blond felt a pang of sympathy for his twin. He never had been very comfortable around pain of any kind.

"I've always… hated the water," Axel answered slowly. "I don't like to be wet, and it's usually cold and hard to control…"

"Go on," Aerith pushed gently when he fell into a contemplative silence.

"Demyx." He faltered over the name. "My cousin," he nearly choked out. "He… he always loved the water. It was like an obsession with him. Over the summer, he'd drag me to the beach almost every day. And if he wasn't swimming… he'd just sit on the sand and watch the waves… He took hour-long baths, and he was always out swimming when all the sane people thought it was too cold." He swallowed, and tried to take a breath that was both deep and subtle. "One day, Demyx drowned."

He said it so simply, but his words left a ringing in Roxas's ears. He knew there was more to the story, but he didn't dare ask.

And Axel was not one to show anything but his strong façade in a time like this. He smiled and arrogant, wry smile and displayed his arms to the group.

"One thing led to another, and the next thing I know, I'm here in your sorry company." He brought his arms back to rest at his sides and stared grimly around. His eyes were like emerald green coals, daring anyone to challenge his words. And it was a challenge he got.

"And that's it?" Riku asked in a mocking tone, his eyes showing more hatred than should be possible in a teenage boy. "I never thought anyone could be that stupid."

"You two must have been close," Kairi commented sadly to the other redhead, but her words were lost in the crowd.

Roxas had gasped in spite of himself at the harshness of the silver-headed boy's words, and Sora was sending a pleading look at Aerith, begging her to put a stop to this. Xion, even more silent than their group leader, seemed to have stopped breathing, and Fuu's head was bent to the floor. But Aerith didn't say a word.

Glassy-eyed and horrified, Naminé whispered, "Riku…" She looked pained, glancing back and forth between the two boys, but Roxas couldn't tell who for.

"No, of course that's not it," Axel responded, his tone just as hard. "I was pissed at the world. I set things on fire, I blew shit up; some days, the fire seemed to be the only thing that reminded me who I was." He paused, seeming to think he'd said too much before glancing at Riku. "Not that that's any of your fucking business."

But the younger boy wasn't budging. "That's stupid," he repeated, cold as ice. "Yeah, it sucked that your cousin died. You didn't need to add all that pain on top of it. You had the chance to move on, and you decided to instead spend your time, fucking up the lives of those around you and your own even more."

This time, no one got a chance to react before he stormed out the door.

**Review please!**

**Oh, I feel like I have so much to discuss down here… Well, first off, I don't own Kingdom Hearts, but I feel like I need a completely separate disclaimer just for what Riku said. I do not believe in any of what he said. It's just a point of view, the same as how Seifer bullies Roxas because he's homophobic. (Well, for the most part. In fact, Seifer's character will actually be gone into more.)**

**And on that note, the next chapter will be almost entirely dedicated to Sora, so for those of you who still feel like he's being shunted to the background (which I feel I'm really guilty of in this chapter)… don't worry. His time is coming.**

**ALSO, there is much more to Axel's story than what was shown here. But that will be revealed in due time, my friends. (;**

**And actually, I cut a couple paragraphs out of the end. I decided they'd work better at the start of the next chapter, so now at least, I have something to start off of. Okay, I think I've sufficiently talked your ears off…**

**Remember to review!**


	9. The Discovery

**Okay, so I know, I'm horrible, and I need to update more… ^^' Sorry. I've been meaning to work on this more, it's just… Well, if you want to be honest, it's because we're getting closer to some of the deeper things that actually relate to my own problems, which seem to have multiplied lately, and it's hard to write about it… I know, I know. Not an excuse. **

**Thank you for reviewing chapter eight:**

_**Hinata's Shdadow 1**_**: This is so late considering we've kept up correspondence through PM… but yes, you're probably right about someone smelling the paint… I added in that scene because that actually happened to one of my friends once. **

_**Optomistic Emo Kleptomaniac: **_**I wish I had a nickname that cool… I'm starting to get deeper into the other characters' storylines, so hopefully you'll continue to enjoy the next chapters. (: And this chapter has a lot of Sora in it, though while Sora's developing, I'm trying to show that Roxas's relationship with Naminé is developing at the same time, instead of putting it into two different chapters.**

_**Justice333 **_**and **_**roxas4ever14: **_**Yes, we are slowly starting to see more of Axel… though his story is going on the backburner for just a little while as we're getting deeper into Riku's story in this chapter. **

_**mudkipluvr4ever: **_**Yes, Riku was being horrible… But actually, (as you'll see soon) it was Riku being horrible that finally prompted the breakthrough between him and Sora.**

_**blood as soft as silk: **_**Ah, last but not least. (: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you love it, and here's the update!**

**Chapter Nine: The Discovery**

Sometimes Sora didn't mind all the hypocrisy in the world. Other times, he couldn't stand it. Unfortunately, that night his emotions played host to the latter option.

"How could anyone be so cruel?" he whispered at last. No one had said a word on the ride home, and now they were standing in the hallway, having just come in.

Cloud turned back to where his sons were standing before glancing at Leon who was standing in the kitchen doorway and back at the twins. Sora was standing with his hands clenched into fists, his eyes glued to the floor. Roxas stood beside him, watching his brother. At last, Leon motioned for them to leave the two alone.

"Sora…" Roxas's words were almost inaudible, and he reached out to grab Sora's hand, but this time it was Sora pulling away. He stormed up the stairs and into his room, painfully aware of the fact that this was exactly what he had asked Roxas not to do.

He nearly slammed his door shut and fell back onto his bed. He wondered if Riku's words were still haunting everyone else. He didn't understand how anyone could say something so awful, least of all someone in any of their situations. It was worse than cruel to suggest that one had brought their trouble upon himself, even if that trouble did happen to be self-harm. And hadn't Riku been _raped_? Repeatedly, according to the boy himself. The thought made Sora shudder again.

_But doesn't he have a point? _a little voice in the back of Sora's head whispered. _No one is ever really as helpless as they're made out to be, are they? Who's to say Riku isn't right? Maybe Axel could have done more to help himself. _You _could have done something to help yourself, but you didn't and look where it's got you._

I was five! Sora silently shouted back at the traitorous voice. He shook his head, desperately trying to rid himself of such thoughts, but he was in too deep now.

_What five year old doesn't know how to ask for help? Even little kids know when something is obviously wrong._

She was my _mom_! What was I supposed to do?!

_Anything. Anything would have been better than nothing. _

It's not my fault! he pleaded desperately with himself. How was I supposed to know it would escalate to that point?

_How many times had she threatened to do exactly what she did? You could have told someone. But you didn't. _

Sora was fighting a losing battle with himself. It really shouldn't have continued to cut this deep. This was by no means his first fight with denial and fault, but it ended this way every single time.

_I should have said something._

Finally, Sora seemed to crumple into himself. He curled up on top of his covers, breathing hard as he attempted to force down the rising lump in his throat. To some extent, he succeeded. He couldn't hold them back completely, but his sobs were dry. He alternated between clutching at his chest where he believed his heart must be from the emotional pain to gasping for air. At last, he fell back, exhausted and still panting. He allowed himself to drift off to sleep.

But it shouldn't have come as such a surprise when his dreams were just as disturbed as his waking thoughts. His mother's voice rang in his mind:

_I'm not going to let him take everything away from me this time._

But all he could see was utter darkness, the way this particular nightmare always was. Though he was waiting for the tiny explosion of the shot, it wasn't any less terrifying. He shot awake as the sound reverberated through his mind, barely aware that he'd let a very audible scream loose until he had to cut it off for air.

Predictably, three sets of footsteps were soon pounding down the hall and into the room. They flung open his door and he cringed away from the bright hallway light. Cloud, Leon, and Roxas were all sitting on the edges of his bed a few seconds later, but Sora was barely aware that they were there. He'd finally noticed how wet his cheeks already were. It was this realization that made him break down and cry in earnest.

As a reflex, or a safety mechanism, or whatever one preferred to call it, Sora brough his hands up to hide his eyes.

Cloud and Leon both did their part. They tried their best to soothe him. They murmured all the right words and did all the right things. But it was Roxas Sora allowed to hold him. It was Roxas who rocked him back and forth until his tears were gone. It was Roxas who still had his arms wrapped around him when Sora fell asleep.

Because Roxas knew the nightmares just as well as he did.

…

The next morning was not an easy one. But then, after a night like the previous one, they never were. Roxas wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad thing that his brother wasn't a silent, wallowing mess. Logically, he figured this should be a good thing. Except this logic was being temporarily overshadowed by how irritating the determined Sora was being. His twin had woken up with the conviction that Riku's harsh words only proved that the silver-headed boy was in need of his friendship more than ever.

"Think about it, Roxas," Sora urged. "No one says something like that unless something is wrong."

"I still don't see what the problem is," Roxas muttered, pointing out that, "No one subjects himself to group therapy unless something is wrong."

"Not like this," Sora insisted. "Therapy is only supposed to deal with the aftermath. Whatever was causing this problem is supposed to be gone."

The blond gave him a pointed look. "You can't really believe that."

Sora faltered but only a little. "I don't mean that it ever really goes away… It's been ten years, and I'm not sure _this_ will ever go away." Roxas looked down. He may not have liked Riku, but he didn't want to discuss _this. _

"But still," Sora pushed on. "There's a difference between not being able to deal with the aftermath… and not having actually gotten through it at all."

Back on track, Roxas fixed his brother with a skeptical look. "Sora, what exactly are you saying?"

Sora sighed, exasperated and pleading at the same time. "I don't _know_. It's just… I can tell that something is wrong. You didn't see the bruises."

"He told you himself that he got into a fight at school."

"You don't get bruises like that from one fight," Sora shot back. "You don't look like that unless you're getting into fights every other day!"

"Well, it wouldn't surprise me if he was," Roxas snapped at last. "Look, Sora, not trying to crush your goals or anything, but I don't think whatever you're trying to stir up between you and Riku is going to work out. Guys like Riku don't make friends."

"Why?" Sora's eyes had narrowed, daring his brother to confirm his suspicions. "Because he's damaged?"

"Because he's not _friendly_!" The two stopped in the middle of the hallway and just stared at each other for a minute after Roxas's outburst. At last, the blond twin said quietly, "Look, Sora, I just don't want you to get hurt, okay?"

He was ashamed to admit it, but Sora let his anger take over then. "No, I can't get hurt, because you don't have time _take care of me_, right?"

There was a moment of silence when the shock and hurt registered on both of their faces. If one had only been looking at their expressions, they would have appeared identical.

"Roxas," Sora tried to amend in a whisper, but his twin had already brushed past him.

Roxas didn't break his stride until he turned the corner and caught sight of Olette, who seemed nearly as hurt and frazzled as himself.

"Olette?" he said, catching her attention and figuring it might be a good idea to ignore his own troubles by immersing himself in someone else's. "What's wrong?"

She sighed and shook her head, running a hand over her face. "It's… nothing."

"C'mon," he wheedled, a little playfully, trying to make light of the situation… whatever it was. "You can talk to me. You can talk to all of us."

Olette made an almost bitter, sarcastic look as the two began to walk down the hallway. "That's what I used to think… Let's be real here. The four of us, we're the outcasts of the school. It's not like it's ever been some big secret. We're not like the popular crowd, and that's not going to change. And I've never had a problem with that. But if we're not like them, why act like them?"

Roxas raised an eyebrow. Sure, being the rejects of the teenage social system was sort of hard to miss, but he'd never heard his friend go off on a rant like this before. To be honest, it had never crossed his mind that Olette might care about something as superficial as popularity. The four of them, Olette, Hayner, Pence, and himself just didn't fit into that mold. It just wasn't who they were. What was it that made someone fit in or stand out, he wondered? After all, in terms of groups, Sora was one of _them_. And he'd never seen his brother as shallow or eager to please. Yet Sora could befriend just about anyone…

"I never thought we _did _act like them. That's what makes us different, right?"

Olette made that face again. It seemed so foreign to him. It made him wonder when the last time he'd actually had a serious conversation with her was. Olette was the bookworm, the peacekeeper. She was quiet, and it didn't really surprise him that she internalized a lot of her deep thoughts. It was hardly like he could judge; he did the same thing. But what made her snap now? Then she sighed.

"It's Hayner," she blurted out. "I don't know what's wrong with him today. I mean, don't get me wrong, he's always been a little intense…"

Roxas laughed. "That's the polite way of putting it."

While they were on the topic, sometimes Roxas wondered what it was that was holding Hayner back. He was certainly ambitious enough to be one of the in-crowd. He aspired to be better than everyone else, better than those at the top. He was pretty outspoken, but he was a take-charge kind of guy. In all honesty, no one in their little group ever argued with him if only because it was too much effort to try to dispute anything he said. Hayner had found his little niche in society with the outcasts, but he was never as content with it as the rest of them were.

"Yeah, well, today he just snapped. I don't even know why. One minute I was talking to Pence, and the next Hayner comes around the corner, and you could tell he was in a bad mood."

Hayner never had been one to hide his emotions. Or anything, for that matter. He was who he was, take it or leave it. This wasn't necessarily a bad quality to have, but it could definitely get in the way of making friends. Now that Olette had started, her story was all coming out in a rush.

"He asked what we were talking about, and Pence told him it was nothing. But that only seemed to make him even angrier. So he was all, 'Oh, keeping secrets now, are we?' And Pence told him to relax, and then Hayner snapped at him to not be so critical of him when he obviously had his own faults." She paused to suck in a breath. "So I told him to knock it off, because he was behaving like a jerk. And he just gave me this look, like, 'whose side are you on?' Then he was all, 'Fine. I can tell when I'm not wanted,' and he just stormed off. Then all Pence wanted to do was talk about how awful Hayner was being and try to figure out why. And I told him that if Hayner didn't want to talk about it, it was none of our business, but Pence kept pushing…"

Roxas started a little as he realized that the girl had tears in her eyes.

"I just couldn't take it, Roxas. I don't want to be like _them_. I don't want to have to constantly be suspicious of what you're all doing and wonder who my real friends are because we can't work out some petty problem in a civil manner."

When he just looked at her, a little dumbfounded, she smiled and wiped at her eyes.

"Gosh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to whine so much. I know you've got a lot on your plate right now with your group therapy starting and everything."

He reflexively blushed and looked away and she continued, "I'm not asking you to talk about it, Roxas. I know you don't like to. But we're worried about you. You're always so secretive, and we can tell you don't like going to group even if we don't talk about it. We just want to make sure you're alright." She sighed, and looked down. "I really am sorry for talking your ear off. It's just… sometimes, I have to wake up and realize that we're not really as close as I'd like to pretend we are, and… well, it's never a welcome wake-up call."

Roxas stood there, still lost for words until Olette excused herself so she wouldn't be late for class. He jumped when he heard a somewhat familiar giggle behind him. He turned to see Kairi watching him with an almost sympathetic smile. He could tell that she'd caught at least the end of their conversation.

"Sometimes I wonder if I was like that," she said wistfully. "You know, whether I was that girl falling apart trying to deal with all the stupid drama, or if I was the one creating all the problems."

If her words were an attempt to make him feel any less uncomfortable, it didn't work.

"Well, anyway, I'm sorry your friends aren't getting along."

This made him laugh. "You say that like it's not such a big deal."

Kairi shrugged, laughing along. "Well, it's not really. Once Hayner realizes that you and your other friend aren't into Olette in that way, things'll calm down."

Once again, Roxas was thrown for a loop that day. "What?" he exclaimed, taken aback. "What makes you think that's the problem."

Kairi winked, giggling again. "Just trust me on this," she said before skipping off.

Roxas watched her go before he sighed. Dealing with all this 'stupid drama' as she'd put it was exhausting. Maybe that's why he didn't fit in. He gave up on others too easily. He just didn't have the energy to try to make everyone happy.

…

As it turned out, Roxas wasn't the only Strife brother Kairi ended up comforting that day. At lunch, she and Sora sat away from everyone else. She rubbed his back sympathetically while he buried his face in his arms on the table.

"I can't believe I did something so stupid," muttered mournfully. "We never hold grudges. _Never_."

The story of the twins' fight had come spilling out, which had led him to explaining the other argument they'd had recently.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," she replied. It was hard for Kairi to sound truly comforting when she always sounded too lighthearted to really care, but at least she was trying.

Sora sighed and picked his head up. "I _am_ worried about Riku, though," he murmured.

"Why?"

This, of course, resulted in Sora telling the rest of his story. About the bruises and the other boy's fight.

Kairi quietly stared at him for a long time afterwards. Then, she began to look worried too. Her face paled, and she shivered.

"That's impossible," she whispered. "I heard Riku talking to Aerith earlier that day. I left to go get some air after because I didn't want to be rude or anything, but… Riku's already been suspended for at least a week already."

This time it was Sora staring back at Kairi, not sure he was completely comprehending her words as his fears were realized. His stomach flopped and his knees felt weak even though he was sitting down.

"I gotta go," he got out before nearly running out of the cafeteria.

…

"Roxas!"

He turned when he heard the voice calling his name, and he stopped abruptly when he noticed Naminé waving to him. He'd just walked out of the school after unsuccessfully trying to find his brother.

"Naminé…" he said slowly. "What are you doing here?"

"Well," she said lightly, "we never really got the chance to hang out like we were supposed to. I know this wasn't really planned, and I understand if you're busy, but I would like to talk to you. Without the rest of the group listening."

For a moment he just stared at her dumbly. "Uh, yeah," he stumbled out at last. "I mean, no, I'm not busy, and I'd love to hang out with you."

She beamed and he was left dumbstruck again. Dressed all in white, her blonde hair shining in the sunlight… the girl looked more beautiful than ever. His heart jumped when she lightly touched his shoulder.

"Awesome. Why don't we take a walk?"

"Uh, yeah… sounds great. So what's up?" he asked when they began walking.

"I'm not sure exactly," she answered honestly. "It's just… you intrigue me."

"Me?"

"Yes, you," she said, laughing, a pretty, musical sound. "You're different." Her voice quieted and she got an almost sad look in her eyes. "I can tell you know what it's like to be taken advantage of by someone you trusted. Loved even."

Once again, Roxas found himself trying to claw his way out of this conversation today. "I don't want to talk about it," he mumbled, almost beginning to sound impatient.

"I know," she said hurriedly, trying to salvage this meeting, fearing that it was already too late. "And I understand that it's hard, but they aren't kidding when they say it helps to talk. Yes, it hurts too, but it does help. You're suffocating in a pit right now, Roxas, and the only way to climb out is to let all the memories ahead of you. Share them with someone who can help you. It doesn't haven't to be me, but please, I hate to see you hurting like this."

He longed to ask why she cared so much about his well-being, but he was finding it hard to get the words out at the moment.

"Oh, Roxas," she murmured, almost brokenheartedly. She reached her fingers up to brush tears away from his eyes that he hadn't even noticed were there.

He flinched away, and when he spoke, his voice was shaking. "Look, I'm not strong like you, okay? I know you're trying to help, but I just can't."

And then he ran.

…

Roxas's thoughts were a jumbled mess as he sprinted home, his backpack bouncing against his back. He was so confused. He hated it! He wanted to be close to Naminé; he couldn't get close. He wanted everything to be all right with his friends; he didn't have the emotional capacity to deal with their problems along with his own. He wanted desperately to be able to talk about his mother… and he just wanted to forget.

As he reached his front door, he realized that what he'd said to Naminé wasn't completely true. How could it be, when he found himself longing, just once, to be the weak one? He desperately wanted to be able to be the one who could express all his feelings properly, to be able to break down and not have to worry that his twin, his best friend, would fall apart the second he did. Roxas loved his brother to death, but he wasn't sure how much longer he'd be able to go on being strong enough for both of them. Hell, he could barely do it for himself. He was going to go insane.

Unfortunately, his much-needed moment of weakness was not to be. When he burst through the door, he found Sora, pacing the foyer.

"There you are!" he exclaimed as soon as he saw him. "Where were you?"

Roxas tried to school his features to appear normal. It was a bit of a safety measure for himself. If he didn't look like anything was wrong, then he couldn't feel hurt later when he realized that Sora hadn't asked what was wrong. And he knew his brother wouldn't ask. For there was clearly something else going on. Sora didn't even wait for an answer.

"Look, I need you to cover for me when Cloud and Leon get back."

Roxas blinked at him, not comprehending. "What? Why? Where are you going?"

Sora bit his lower lip nervously. "I can't tell you."

Again, Roxas just looked at him. "You want a favor… and you can't even tell me what's going on?"

"_Please_, Rox," Sora begged. "I need you to trust me. I'll owe you."

"You don't have to owe me." Roxas was caving, just as they'd both known he would. Sora flung his arms around his brother to show his gratitude and Roxas whispered, "Just promise me you'll be safe."

…

Sora slowly made his way to the outskirts of the neighboring town. Dusk was approaching, and he was starting to feel even more uneasy. Before he'd left, he'd given his brother an extra long hug… but he hadn't made any promises. Now, he was becoming more relieved by the second that he hadn't.

After lunch, he'd gone to great lengths in the library looking up Riku's address. The boy lived in a very secluded area of the woods in the next town over.

Sora hurried his step a little when he caught sight of the house. It was more of a cottage really, made of grey bricks and almost hidden among the trees. He could have sworn he heard something smash inside the house, but he told himself he was imagining things and knocked on the door.

There was unintelligible shouting from the inside before the door was flung open by Riku himself. Sora couldn't hold back the gasp as his mouth fell open. The older boy looked awful. He was much paler than he should have been, and the circles under his eyes were nearly vibrant against his unhealthy pallor. He clearly hadn't been sleeping well. But most troubling of all were the bruises Sora spotted on his upper arms and the tiny cut across his left cheek.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Riku hissed, his usual glare and harsh tone in place. But in Sora's silence, something inside of him seemed to wilt. The metaphorical cat was most certainly out of the bag now, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Just go home, Sora," he whispered in a defeated, pleading tone that Sora had never heard out of the boy.

He didn't get a chance to respond before Riku slammed the door in his face to return to the hell that lay inside.

**Review please! **

**Okay, so off on another tangent… I BEAT RE: CODED! And I have started Dream Drop Distance. :D I am thoroughly enjoying it thus far and (not meant as a spoiler or anything) there's only one thing I'm not very pleased with. I feel like every single thing that Sora says comes out sounding way too overdramatic. I don't think it's the voice actor's fault, it's looking like the blame goes to the script at this point. I get that Sora is supposed to be the innocent, lighthearted main character, but at this point, it's like Riku's story is really deep… and Sora seems to have de-aged a few years…**

**I don't own Kingdom hearts, and I'm sorry for the delay, but I hope you like the update!**


End file.
